Here’s the set-up for Darcie Chan’s The Mill River Recluse, just 99 Cents on Kindle:
Disfigured by the blow of an abusive husband, and suffering her entire life with severe social anxiety disorder, the widow Mary McAllister spends almost sixty years secluded in a white marble mansion overlooking the town of Mill River, Vermont. Her links to the outside world are few: the mail, the media, an elderly priest with a guilty habit of pilfering spoons, and a bedroom window with a view of the town below.
Most longtime residents of Mill River consider the marble house and its occupant peculiar, though insignificant, fixtures. An arsonist, a covetous nurse, and the endearing village idiot are among the few who have ever seen Mary. Newcomers to Mill River–a police officer and his daughter and a new fourth grade teacher–are also curious about the reclusive old woman. But only Father Michael O’Brien knows Mary and the secret she keeps–one that, once revealed, will change all of their lives forever.
The Mill River Recluse is a story of triumph over tragedy, one that reminds us of the value of friendship and the ability of love to come from the most unexpected of places.
From the reviewers:
In the last 5 days, the 5-Star Reviews for this novel jumped from 59 to 83 and total reviews put this novel at 4.4 Stars on 127 reviews, up from 89 a few days ago. Currently No. 5 in the paid Kindle Store and also a NY Times and USA Today Bestseller. It’s beautifully written, a fascinating story of a heart broken by cruelty, crippled by resulting debilitating anxiety, and surviving by a passion for the people of a small town whom she can only know from a distance. One of my all-time favorites. Like Kathryn Stockett and The Help, another woman with a first novel grabbing attention and praise, Chan is on a roll with readers. At the moment, Chan’s book is No. 5 in the paid Kindle Store, while The Help is a couple steps ahead at No. 2. Heady and well deserved company for Chan.– Tom Dulaney, Editor, BookGorilla.com
A Stateside Maeve Binchy. Maeve Binchy fans, pay attention: Darcie Chan is your stateside solution. Chan’s portrait of small-town life in Vermont evokes the lovable, quirky characters of Circle of Friends or Tara Road, but with a style and spirit all her own. – Lena Amarosa
WOW…amazing read. I literally could not think of anything else until I finished the book, and was really sad when I saw that the author has not published anything else YET. – Linda Shelton
… an amazing read and what a bargain at 99 cents! Interesting characters and a great story … had me hooked from the first page. I agree with another reviewer in that it can’t be pigeon holed into one genre. There is mystery, romance, crime and a bit of humor all rolled into one. You won’t be disappointed except that it has a last page. I couldn’t put it down but I didn’t want to reach the end either! – Karen S.
Visit Amazon’s Darcie Chan Page
Darcie Chan was born in Wisconsin and grew up in the small towns of Brandon, Wisconsin, La Junta and Cheraw, Colorado, and Paoli, Indiana. She has two younger sisters.
Thanks to loving and supportive parents who are both educators, she learned to read and write at an early age. As a child, she fell in love with books and became quite obsessed with Walter Farley’s Black Stallion series of books, among many others. Her passion for reading and writing continued through college at Indiana University, Bloomington, and law school at the University of Baltimore. Currently, she is an attorney with the Office of the Legislative Counsel, United States Senate, where she drafts environmental and natural resource legislation.
In her spare time, Darcie enjoys reading, writing fiction, gardening, playing piano, and cooking. She lives in northern Westchester County, New York, with her husband (whom she first met as a senior in high school at a national science competition), their son, and two cats.
The Mill River Recluse is her first novel.
Kindle Daily Deal: The Grove
In this gritty noir novel, The Grove, John Rector weaves an intensely sinister tale. Dexter McCray is a farmer with a dark past that continues to haunt him. As a man struggling with alcoholism, he’s used to being looked at with pity and suspicion in his community. So, after waking from a blackout to discover the body of a teenage girl in the nearby cottonwood grove, he can’t be entirely sure he’s innocent.
| Yesterday’s Price: |
$7.99 |
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| Today’s Discount: |
$6.00 |
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| Kindle Daily Deal Price: |
$1.99 |
(75% off) |
And here, in the comfort of your own browser, is your free sample:
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